“Don’t complain, don’t explain, just deal with it”

Henry Ford II

In a recent Geico commercial you seem to be spying on a sales meeting.  One of the members of the meeting comments, “I suppose I could sell insurance if I were cute and green with an Australian accent too.”  The ad reminded me how often I hear people make the excuse, “Well if I had (insert whatever supposed benefit you want) I could accomplish whatever the person with that benefit accomplished too.”  As if the successful person had somehow been granted some special favor from the world.

No one is granted any special favors from anyone.  Successful people take Henry Fords advice to heart they simply deal with whatever they are handed as it comes, and do whatever they have to do to work around it.  There are no special miraculous skills or talents required for that.

As we continue working on your “Strategic Sales Master Plan” the next thing we need to consider is resources.  I’ve yet to meet a single person who already has all the resources they want, or believe they need.  Plus you probably can’t have every resource you can imagine, so let’s narrow those resources down to the most important resources you will need to produce the sales results you want.

Resources You Have vs. Resources You Need

There’s no need to make things complicated.  Simply grab a sheet of paper and draw a line down the center.  Label the left column “Resources I Have” and the right column “Resources I Need”.  Now we need to evaluate what those resources might be.  One way to do that is to think about the 5 critical factors and your particular goals for each factor.

Significance:  Some resources you needed to develop significance include…

• Information & Knowledge - Required to help you identify who wants to know you and why.
• Money - The investments you will make to get your SOLUTION in front of the right people making it easy for those people to find you.
• Skill - The skill required to engage the right people and help them uncover their motivation to act.
• Manpower - The required man hours to set-up, implement, and follow-up with the approaches used to get your solution in front of the right people.

Connections: Some resources needed to develop connections include…

• Information & Knowledge - Required to set-up and deliver communications that produce action from your best potential clients.
• Soft assets - Automation so the connection process becomes a set it and forget it easily expandable process.
• Skills - Required to know how to implement a process that triggers action.

Relationships:  Some resources needed to develop relationships include…

• Time - The time required to manage the sales cycle.
• Information - Required to understand what your best potential clients are already looking to buy, and how they perceive getting that.
• Knowledge - The knowledge to know what to do to create a relationship process.
• Skills - The skills required to know how to implement a relationship process.
• Soft assets - The automation to make the relationship process a set it and forget it easily expandable process.

Transformation:  Some resources needed to create transformations include…

• Information - Information about your potential clients and their needs.
• Knowledge - Knowledge to know what to do to develop and deliver a sales process.
• Skills - The skills to know how to implement the sales process.

Expansion:  Some resources needed for expansion include…

• Money - The investment you will make to implement a referral process.
• Knowledge - The knowledge needed to know what to do to create a referral process.
• Skills - The skills needed to know how to implement your referral process.
• Soft assets - The automation needed to create a set it and forget it easily expandable referral process.

What About Your Goal Resources?

Now look over the goals you wrote and identify the resources you have, and the resources you need to put those goals into action.

Okay, now I want you to focus on the right column representing the resources you don’t have as listed on your sheet.  Would you classify any of the resources you listed as optional?  If so, mark them off your list.

Could you substitute a resource from your “have” column and use it as a work around for a resource you don’t have?  If so, mark this resource from your column representing the resources you need.

At this point you should be left with a bare bones list of MUST have resource.

How Will You Get Those Resources?

Is there a way to get a particular resource for free?  It is absolutely amazing what you can do with zero investment.

Is there a way to borrow, barter, or trade for a resource on your list?

Which of those resources will you have to man-up and get even though it might be painful to make that upfront investment?

These hard to make investments are quite often game changers.  Until you are willing to commit you end up wasting far more time and money than you would if you just bit the bullet and did it.  I vividly recall one such investment.  The investment was a little over $20,000.  At the time that was a pretty big deal to me.  It made my stomach hurt just to think about writing that check, but I did it.  I did it because if I hadn’t done it I never would have gotten off the ground.   I would have fizzled out just like so many small businesses who fail before any one even realizes they exist.

What’s that game changer investment you need to make?  What will you have to do to get that resource no matter what?  No excuses, no complaining, just deal with it…

What if…

I fully empathize with how hard that is for most people.  You wonder what if… you are making a mistake.  You wonder if… there is another way or a better option.  You wonder if.. you can wait and do it later.

All that wondering means you are avoiding a decision because you are afraid of all the things you are wondering about.  Here’s what I’ve found from my personal experience and my experience with countless really successful people.  Highly successful people…

• make decisions quickly
• they change their minds slowly
• and once they commit they take massive action

What if you started behaving like a successful business owner, and fully committed to yourself and your ability to achieve what you set out to do?

What happens if you do nothing?

Are you more willing to take that risk, the risk of the consequences of doing nothing, than the perceived risk required to get the resources you believe would change everything for you and your business?

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

photo credit: Vali…

If asked, most people would say they have goals.  So… why do only a rare handful of people actually achieve their goals?  Experts report only 3% of the population sets goals, and only 1% actually GET the goals they set.

Does that mean the remaining 97-99% of the population is just a bunch of losers?  NO!  It means most people have made some common mistakes when it comes to setting and getting goals.

3 Common Goal Flaws

When you don’t get your goals understand your failure is probably a result of:

• Not writing your goals down
• Setting the wrong goals
• Setting passive goals that do not specifically require action

You can achieve lots of goals without writing those goals down.  However, those goals are typically related to things you currently own the capacity to achieve because you have achieved that goal on one or more occasions previously.  Yet, once you venture into new territories in goal setting, if you don’t write those goals down you are not likely to get them.

The concept of SMART goals has been around since the 1950’s.  These goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time bound

Before we get to how you might write a goal let’s talk about the fact that most people set the wrong goals.  Most people either set outcome goals, or they set action goals that don’t necessarily produce results.  Here’s what I mean.

When thinking about the Transformation critical factor from the last post the desired final outcome is clients.  Here’s a goal many people would set… I will get 8 new clients a month.

Is it specific?  Well, 8 is specific.

Can you measure it?  Yes, you can measure both progress and completion.

Is it achievable?  Here’s where things get a little gray because getting 8 new clients a month is achievable if you are prepared to actually accomplish that beyond simply setting a goal.

Is it realistic?  If you aren’t consistently getting clients now suddenly getting 8 new clients a month may NOT be a realistic goal.

Is it time bound?  Yes, but that doesn’t mean anything is actually going to happen.  Bottom line this goal is just all wrong.

Realistically you could never achieve this goal related to the Transformation critical factor until you completed goals from the Significance critical factor.  Here’s a goal many have set that would fall under the Significance critical factor… I will make 100 cold calls, set appointments with 3 of those contacted, and close one new client each week.  Boy, that sure sounds like it meets all the SMART goal criteria making it a good goal.

Here’s the hidden problem with goals like that.  If you aren’t currently experiencing that kind of success from cold calling there’s a reason for that…

• You aren’t calling the right people
• You aren’t engaging the people you call
• You can’t help the people you talk to see a benefit from taking an action that moves them closer to you

Randomly calling people is a waste of time, one of your most precious assets.  When you don’t know who the best people to contact are, when you don’t have something to say that immediately grabs their interest, when you don’t know how to guide the people you call to take actions they already want to take… it doesn’t matter how many people you call.  You’re effectiveness isn’t going to significantly improve by simply doing the same things.  When you read “How to Get More New Clients in 9 Days” you’ll find out exactly how to overcome each of those challenges.

So if you decided cold calling would be how you would get clients then before you could make that happen your first goal might be…  I will read and complete “How to Get More New Clients in 9 Days” in 9 days, then I will prepare to make cold calls by making a list 100 people I will contact, and I will start making my first calls within 2 weeks.

A goal like that fulfills all the SMART criteria.  Another reason this is a good goal rather than a wrong goal is because once you complete this goal you will have learned a lot.  And you can take that knowledge and experience and write your next achievable goal.  Each goal moves you closer to your overall objective.

When people set wrong goals they don’t win.  When you set the right goals focused on the right things you get lots of small successes.  Each success moves you at least one step closer to the overall success you really want.

Sometimes you need to set becoming goals.  These types of goals are very conceptual by nature yet you have to turn concepts into actions.  Perhaps you want to become a recognized expert.  The only way to make that happen is one step at a time.  On the way to becoming a recognized expert you may set a goal to… Write an article on your topic and get that article published in a trade newsletter.

Now review the 5 critical factors from your “Strategic Sales Master Plan” and start writing goals to fulfill those critical factors.  Get to work and start writing;-)

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

The next step in your “Strategic Sales Master Plan” is identifying your top critical factors.  Overall there are a lot of critical factors that can impact your business and its success.  Typically those factors are related to time, talents, treasure, and manpower.  In general; critical factors are broad categories like customer service, finances, etc.  Our focus here is the 5 most critical factors when it comes to SALES.

All you need to do at this point is understand each critical factor and how it impacts your sales success.  Right now you don’t need to identify specific ways to fulfill each critical factor because that comes later.  Here are the 5 critical factors.

Significance

The first critical factor is significance.  Significance is what makes you findable by the right people for the right reasons.  Your ideal future clients won’t be able to find you unless you can answer the question…

Who wants to know you and why? 

For example, a commercial Realtor might say, “Owners and people looking to own a 12-plex or larger apartment building come to me because I’m an expert when it comes to helping them increase their profits from the properties they own. They know when they buy or sell a building with me they will earn more.”

Significance is what makes it easier for the right people to find you.  When you hold significance whether you…

• Make calls
• Network
• Run ads
• Send direct mail
• Capture leads through your website

The potential buyers who come to you are far more likely to be the right people.

Typically when people have a website they have one of two experiences.  They get almost no traffic to their website, or they get a ton of traffic to their website yet neither results in clients.  This typical experience is a result of their lack of significance.  The right people can’t find you, meaning whether you get a lot or a little traffic those visitors leave without connecting with you.  It’s not the amount of traffic you get that counts.  It’s not the amount of suspects you get from those other prospecting efforts that count.  What counts is the relevancy of those visitors and suspects you attract.

Connections

Connections is the next critical factor.  Connections represent the first step in the relationship and sales process.  Most people mistakenly think the most important action is the action they take.  The reality is the most important action is the action a potential client takes.  Once you have significance more of the right people find you and more of those people are willing to take an action.

Once they find you it’s up to you to present those potential clients with the motivation to take the first action.  That action makes your first connection.  When a potential client takes that action they are, in essence, raising their hand and telling you, “Hey, I’m someone like that and that’s what I’m looking for too.”  A potential client would be telling the commercial Realtor I either own or want to own an apartment complex and I want to make sure I profit from the experience.

This first connection is the key to setting the stage so you are the one sought after rather than the one doing the chasing and begging.  This critical factor makes certain you never have to chase after people who don’t want to talk to you, or beg for an appointment with people who will never become your client.

Relationships

Relationships are the next critical factor.  Relationships are what help you build the trust and appreciation required to have an open and honest sales conversation when the time is right.  Even though many people treat relationships like they are something that just happens that’s a big mistake.  Building relationships is a predictable and repeatable process.

You have the power to control every step in the process.  The magic comes when you understand how to automate that process so you can initiate, nurture, and maintain a relationship with a limitless number of ideal potential clients and existing clients.

The relationship process eliminates the skepticism that creates those stilted difficult conversations about working together that happen as a result of potential clients viewing you as a typical sales person.

Transformation

The fourth critical factor is transformation.  Transformation represents the successful progression through the sales funnel transforming a complete stranger into a paying client.  It’s a smooth step-wise process for both you and your new client.  The transformation process honors and respects the stages of buyer readiness, and helps you focus your time on the people who are ready to buy now while nurturing the people who will become ready buyers at some point in the future.

Expansion

Expansion is the last critical factor.  Expansion is the result of significance combined with leverage.  The outcome of expansion is referrals.  Expansion produces referrals from both clients and business partners.

Most people treat referrals like an unexpected gift.  Expansion helps you develop a process that predictably produces referrals.

This will be an easy step for you.  Take out your “Strategic Sales Master Plan“  and fill in the 5 critical factors with the words:

1. Significance
2. Connections
3. Relationships
4. Transformation
5. Expansion

Then start thinking about what you could do to produce those outcomes in your business.  Just think, nothing more nothing less.  Allow your mind to explore things you may never have done before.  Question the way you’ve approached these things in the past.  What might you do?  What have you done that you shouldn’t be doing?

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

There’s a lot of talk about “finding your purpose” and just as many books on the topic.  Due to some outright miscommunications along with some misunderstandings the concept of finding your purpose has taken off on this froo- froo tangent that isn’t doing anyone any good.   Many people are expecting some mystical revelation of what their purpose is.

News flash.  Your purpose is whatever you declare it is.  This is true on both a personal and professional level.  When you lack clarity of purpose on a business level you have big trouble because neither you nor your potential clients understand why your business exists.

Purpose = Reason Your Business Exists

Purpose represents the reason your business exists for the people willing to pay you money to get what you sell.  If your business does not exist for a specific valuable reason there is no reason for your business to exist.  Many  businesses conduct daily operations without a clear purpose.  Those businesses have trouble attracting clients, trouble keeping clients, and almost never get a referral.  Daily operations are more like fire drills than real functioning businesses because the business never focuses on a clear set of objectives.

In order to clarify and refine your purpose you must answer these 3 questions:

1. What do you DO for your clients?
2. What problems do you solve, outcomes do you produce, or results do you get for those clients?
3. What are your clients reasons for buying from your business?

Sometimes businesses incorporate their purpose into their mission statement.  I don’t like to do that because I believe your purpose is far too important, and deserves your full attention.  Understanding the purpose of your business is key to the clarity that makes it easier to increase your sales and get more clients.

When you are clear on the purpose of your business you can focus on the best way to stay on purpose and do what your business exists to do right now.   Meaning you waste fewer resources on the things that aren’t part of your purpose than you probably do now.  Meaning you gain a greater return from your resources because you wisely use those resources in ways that fit your purpose.

Purpose comes from knowing why you are doing what you are doing.

Clarity of purpose helps you see the challenges you face as opportunities to learn and grow stronger.

To give you an example, the purpose for my business is “To help professionals get clients so they have the time and financial freedom to enjoy the things they love.”

To clarify and refine the purpose for you business start off by answering those 3 questions above.  Next condense and simplify those thoughts into a powerful statement of purpose.  Record that statement on your “Strategic Sales Master Plan“.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

“Look out!  Here she comes she’s a woman on a mission”  I’ve heard those words more than once in reference to me when I was entirely focused on accomplishing an objective.  And I have to confess it’s true.

Once I set my sights on accomplishing something I’ve got the determination of a bull dog.  I put my blinders on (as in maintaining full focus) my head down (as in I don’t know the word quit) and GO (as in taking massive unrelenting action).  Telling me it’s not possible translates into it’s not possible THIS way SO there must be ANOTHER way.  To me the key is just finding the right path.

This unyielding mind-set can drive people nuts because they can’t figure out why I just won’t give up.  To me it’s just what you have to do to get things done.  Because… I have a mission.

Mission = Will Get Done

One thing I want you to realize as you think about your mission is a mission isn’t something you wish will happen.  It isn’t something you hope will happen.  It isn’t something it sure would be nice IF it happened.  A mission is a line in the sand objective that WILL happen come hell or high water.

Your mission must be that important to you.  The entire Strategic Sales Master Plan process is very personal and very emotional and very motivating.  You are doing this for yourself, no one else.  You can fudge a little to other people sometimes… Nothings wrong, everything is just fine.

You can make excuses for yourself to other people sometimes… I was just too tired, or it was just too hard.

You can’t fudge or excuse your way out of this.  This is drop dead serious.

Hands & Feet

A good mission statement makes it clear how YOU will move your hands and feet to accomplish something.  This can be either implicitly or explicitly stated.  Bottom line though your mission statement must leave no doubt in your mind exactly what you have set out to accomplish.

In 1990 Wal-Mart had a mission to “Become a $125 billion company by 2000″.  Now that’s explicit.

3M had a mission “To solve unsolved problems innovately”, less explicit yet crystal clear.

You can measure a good mission statement.  Wal-Mart can obviously measure $125,000,000,000.  However, 3M can also measure each problem solved even though it isn’t explicit how many problems they want to solve.

A good mission is in alignment with your values.  Honesty and integrity should always be important.  Reinforce your values in the way you accomplish your objective.

Sandlow Law Firm’s mission “To provide fair, honest, and equal representation to those in need of legal aid” leaves no doubt about their values.

A good mission statement explicitly or implicitly defines how you will accomplish what you set out to do.

ADM’s mission “To unlock the potential of nature to improve the quality of life” clearly defines how they accomplish their objective.

As you write your mission think about:

• how you have to act to get it done
• how you will accomplish it
• how you’ll measure progress
• how you’ll do it in a way that fits your values
• how it impacts your decisions and choices

Let’s see how 3M’s mission statement “To solve unsolved problems innovately” fits our criteria.

Do they know how to move their hands and feet (actions)?  Yes.  They have to find problems they can solve, and then create solutions for those problems.

Do they know what they have to accomplish?  Yes.  Innovative solutions.

Do they know how to measure progress?  Yes.  Each problem identified and solved can be counted, and measured for effectiveness.

Do they know how their mission fits their values?  Yes.  Each solution must be innovative.  Innovation is one of their core values.

Do they have a way to evaluate decisions and choices?  Yes.  The problem must not have an existing solution.  The solution must be innovative.  Decisions must be in alignment with those criteria.  One other thing to note.  They did not make an allowance for partial solutions or improvements.

Each step you take in this Strategic Sales Master Plan process is like peeling the onion.  Each layer helps you gain a better understanding of the “you” you want to become, of the business you want to develop.  The more clarity you gain the easier it is, not just to accomplish what you want, but to increase your attractiveness to the people you most want to work with.

By the time we’re finished you’ll know exactly the business you want to be in, how to get there, and how to get clients who are looking for a business just like that.

Now it’s time to get out your Strategic Sales Master Plan and get to work.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

photo credit: Cleavers

Have you seen one of those odd little “Droid Does” commercials lately?  If you haven’t, or don’t remember let me bring you up to speed on the concept.

Apples iPhone has been the 800 pound gorilla among cell phones.  There’s almost a cult-like following among buyers.  In other words, Apple has achieved retail sales heaven with the iPhone.  Plus they have a locked in agreement with AT&T so it’s the gift that keeps on giving long after buyers purchase the phone.

So far the competition hasn’t been able to serve up anything that doesn’t come off looking like a cheap knock-off.  And that’s where Droid comes in.

Mac v. PC War

If you ever watch TV I’m pretty confident you’ve seen the Mac v. PC ads where poor PC always falls short when held up against Mac.  Why Apple has never really adapted for the business buyers desperate for a “it isn’t powered by Microsoft” alternate is beyond me… BUT that’s an entirely different discussion.

Droid v. iPhone

 
photo credit: Ed Yourdon

Now here comes the Droid takes on iPhone challenge.  The smart marketers behind this campaign took on the things that iPhone lacks, does poorly, or simply annoys iPhone users and came up with a better alternative.  Is it a better alternative?  I have no idea nor do I really care.

What I care about is the fantastic example and reminder of how anyone of any size can take on Goliath by simply doing it better, faster, easier, etc.

You can use this approach with a service just as easily.  This proven time tested concept isn’t knew by any means.  It plays off a concept known as SCAMPER attributed to Frank Daniels.

All that’s required to use this to help you increase your sales is your thinking cap and a willingness to make some changes that better serve your buyers.

SCAMPER stands for:

• substitute
• combine
• adapt
• modify
• put to other uses
• eliminate
• reduce

Compare the way you offer your services to the way those around you offer there’s.  Then apply SCAMPER to each thing you do from the perspective of your buyer.  You might ask yourself, “What could I substitute for this particular way I work with people because it would work better for my clients?

Research the way other businesses promote and deliver their services.  Find out what their clients like about the way they do things.  Find out if they could change one thing about the way they work with the other service provider what that one thing is and how they would change it.  Ask your existing clients too.

Don’t get locked into one way of working with people, and don’t think just because the competition is bigger than you that you can’t gain a significant share of that market demonstrating how you do it better.

In “How to Get More New Clients in 9 Days” you’ll discover ways to pinpoint what you could do and how you could set yourself apart.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

Hmmm… that’s sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it?  Like saying a dry rain, it just doesn’t seem like those words fit together.

Increase sales without selling… is that even possible?  YES.

You already understand selling a service is NOT like selling a product of any type or any value.

I’d like you to think about something for me.  Could you please picture in your mind…

An Ordinary Sales Person?

Did the person you pictured look anything like this? 

 Not that Larry here isn’t a perfectly nice fellow, BUT…

How did you feel as your mind conjured up what an ordinary sales person might look like?

Did you feel even a little tension somewhere in your body?

Why did you feel that tension?

You didn’t feel that tension because of how the ordinary sales person you thought of in your minds eye looks.  You felt that tension because of how the ordinary sales person in your minds eye behaves.

Yes, how he or she behaves.  When you think of a sales person you probably think of someone who is a little too loud, a little too pushy, a little too talkative, a little too… well, a little too of a lot of things you don’t really like.

The strange thing is when you are approached by a “sales person” that tension is triggered without the “sales person” doing a single thing to trigger that reaction.  That negative reaction is exactly why…

Ordinary Sales Training Does NOT Work for People in Service Industries

How could you possibly expect someone who needs to trust you, rely on you for very important things in their life to respond positively if you behave like you are an ordinary sales person?

You don’t like how it makes you feel to act like an ordinary sales person either.

I’d like to ask another question.  Have you have went with a friend to “help” them make a buying decision?  Or perhaps they’ve just talked it through with you until they came to their own conclusion.

Bingo, that’s exactly how you…

Increase Sales without Selling

If you’ve ever helped someone else buy you know how rewarding the experience is for both of you.  Typical sales training doesn’t help you develop those conversations because they teach you to constantly push your agenda when you should be following your clients agenda.

It’s all in how you set the relationship up from the beginning.

Instead of trying to talk everyone you meet into buying… you make it crystal clear who you can help get what.

Instead of doing most of the talking… you listen, really listen, and help the other person think through their options.

Instead of pestering people hoping they’ll eventually give in and buy… you develop relationships so when they are ready to buy they wouldn’t think of using anyone else but you.

In a service business it’s all about the relationships you develop.  It’s all about treating your potential clients with honesty and integrity.  It’s all about behaving like a trusted professional not an ordinary sales person.

So, if you want to increase sales without selling just like I lay out in The Blueprint for Increased Sales” you must:

• Start with the right message
• Going to the right people
• In the right way
• Motivating them to take the right action
• For the right reason

When you look over that list where do you think the actual sales conversation comes into play?

I didn’t intend to trick you; however, the actual sales conversation doesn’t come into play on this list at all.  All of this happens before you ever hold your appointment.  Why?  Because that’s how you set yourself up to increase sales without selling.

Speaking of increasing sales… could you use some new clients in the next 9 days?  Check out my new eBook “How to Get More New Clients in 9 Days”

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

photo credit: me and the sysop

STOP asking for referrals! Yes, you read that right.  If you want to get referrals.  If you want to get really good referrals then STOP asking for them right now.

Before You Call Me Crazy Hear Me Out!

I know this completely contradicts what every “sales trainer”, sales manager, or sales mentor has probably EVER told you.  I know sales reps you get verbally flogged on a regular basis because they don’t ask, or ask for enough referrals.  So why on earth would I suggest you stop asking for referrals?

Before I get into that there’s something I want you to understand about asking for referrals.  There are two types of sales referrals:

1. Referrals to people who could potentially buy your stuff aka prospects
2. Referrals to people who are already interested in buying your stuff aka highly qualified sales leads

When you ask for referrals the way you do now you think you are asking for highly qualified sales leads, BUT the reality is you aren’t even asking for prospects because of the way you are told to approach it.

When you ask for referrals the way an ordinary sales person asks for referrals you manage to accomplish 3 very negative things in one fell swoop.

1. You trigger the defenses of the people you ask to refer you
2. You damage your relationship with that person because they feel like you are imposing upon the relationship
3. You meet with people who are defensive about meeting with you rather than real prospects or leads

It’s funny how contradictory statements get your attention and often prove to be more true than commonly held beliefs.  Copywriter Ray Edwards reminded me of this fact when he told a story about how a 78 year old lady stopped a bank robber in his tracks.  You wouldn’t think that could happen yet it did.

Just like you wouldn’t think you would get referrals if you just stopped asking for them.  Yet you will.

One of my clients is a Financial Advisor.  He exemplifies the power of getting referrals without asking for them.  Or… at least not asking for them in the conventional manner.  And that’s what I’m really talking about… getting what you want in a way that works for everyone involved so no one has to feel awkward or offended.

So, rather than asking for referrals, my client the Financial Advisor asks for something a little unexpected.  It doesn’t matter if he asks a client or someone he just met… people comply because he isn’t asking them to do something they don’t want to do.  Before he asks he gets to know the other person through just plain old ordinary conversation.

People Reveal Their Connections to People in Ordinary Conversation

As you’ve probably noticed when you talk to people they naturally talk about what they do and who they know.  At some point in the conversation when they mention someone they know that the Financial Advisor doesn’t he simply asks his big referral generating question…

“Could you introduce me to….”

In the conversation the other person might mention another business owner they know.  He would then say something like, “I’ve heard Bob Smiths name a couple times now, but I’ve never met him.  Could you introduce me to Bob?”

Why is this smart?  Well, it sets him up for 3 positive things:

1. It doesn’t trigger the defenses of the other person, in fact, they feel good about helping you meet someone they know.  An introduction isn’t threatening.
2. Rather than damaging the relationship it strengthens your relationship with the person making the introduction.  He will then arrange for himself, the person making the introduction, and the person getting introduced to meet in a relaxed environment where they can simply get to know each other.
3. The introduction presents an opportunity to make a connection.  That connection triggers the opportunity to develop a relationship with the person introduced.  Plus relationships make it so much easier for you to transform strangers into buyers.

He’s not asking for a sales lead, something NO ONE wants to give you.  He’s not explicitly asking for a prospect, yet, that’s exactly what he’s getting.  He’s just asking you to help him meet someone he doesn’t know.

To give you an idea how this escalates let me explain what he does after the introduction.  Through a normal conversation he learns about the person he’s meeting and finds out who they would like to meet.  He does this as he also finds out who else they know.  Then, he first offers to introduce the person he’s just met to someone they would like to meet.  Finally, he asks for an introduction to someone they know that he doesn’t.  They’ve just had a positive experience with him demonstrating there’s nothing to risk in introducing him to someone they know.  Plus he’s just offered to do something nice for them and most people will want to reciprocate.  Many offer to introduce him to someone before he even has to ask.

Once he makes a connection he diligently works to extend those relationships expanding his network and moving his new connections one step at a time to clients.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

photo credit: Aidan Jones

Today is an important day.  A really important day.  Do you know what today is?

Today is the last day of the third quarter.  Today is the last day you have to plan what will happen in your business in the fourth and final quarter of the year.  Today is your last chance to make or break this year for your business.

Today is a Big Hairy Important Day

Right now you have 3 choices before you:

1. You can choose to keep doing what you are doing now and HOPE for the best.
2. You can choose do more of what you are doing now counting on better results because of your increased activity.
3. You can choose to stop doing the things that aren’t working for you and focus on the things that are working for you.

This is what sets you apart from the people who pick up a paycheck from their J-O-B.  You take responsibility.  You hold yourself accountable.  You understand you choose the results you get like them or not.

So… if you want to end this year with a big sales bang YOU have to choose how YOU will make that happen for you and your business.  Here are the steps to making that happen for you:

1. Evaluate your current situation by gathering all your sales data and scrutinizing it for patterns and opportunities.
2. Identify your high payoff activities.
3. Identify and eliminate your low payoff activities.
4. Narrow and focus your message to hit dead center with your best potential buyers.
5. Increase your response rate with each point of connection by improving both your message and your offer.
6. Increase your engagement with all your potential buyers by increasing their opportunities to experience you in a no pressure environment.  I don’t mean a cocktail party here.  I mean something like a learning experience where you help them solve a problem.
7. Clarify your sales funnel so you have clearly defined next steps and the means to make those next steps happen.

Which steps could you improve?  Which steps do you feel like you have down?  What do you need to adapt to end with a strong 4th quarter?

Recently I made a video so I could talk to you about what people just starting out, those with an established business, and those with declining revenues need and have in common.  You can listen in here.  Sales Marketing Video

Don’t allow excuses to keep you from selling more.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

photo credit: adria.richards

So you’ve got this service business where you provide services just like hundreds of other service businesses in your industry.  What makes someone who needs your services choose you over any other service provider?

Probably nothing.  It really doesn’t matter what business you’re in the challenge is the same.  In fact, Jonathan Morrow recently addressed this same issue among blogs.

Do you just accept this as the way things are, or do you take steps to make your business the business of choice?

If you want a successful business you take steps to make your business the business of choice.  There is always a way to do it.  It just takes some creative thinking and listening.

Let’s see how this worked for a product you’re probably familiar with.  What would you do if you made tomato juice to get people to buy your juice?  How would you get people to buy your juice to the point that your juice is the juice of choice among tomato juice drinkers?

photo credit: strangelv

There’s a lot of competition among tomato juice.  You have the big names in canned vegetables along with the low cost house brands.  Plus it’s not exactly an exciting product.  I mean how many times have you woke up in a sweat in the middle of the night thinking, “The first thing I have to do in the morning is get some tomato juice”?  Can’t say I have ever had that experience.

Earlier I mentioned anyone can do this it just takes some creative “listening”.  Did you catch that?  Here’s why I say listening.

You are too close to your business and what you sell to know how the people most likely to buy your stuff actually talk about it.  So you have to interact with, engage, and seek out resources where you can capture your ideal prospects engaged in real conversation about what you sell.  The internet has made this eazy-peazy.

Back to our tomato juice company.  Well, they did there homework and here’s what they found:

• credible sources proclaimed people do not eat enough vegetables to maintain a healthy diet
• many people don’t like vegetables and don’t buy them
• a good number of people are already looking for ways to get more vegetables in their diet without eating bowls full of vegetables

Because there is a market of people who already believe they don’t eat enough vegetables there is a market for a vegetable juice.  Tomato juice is a vegetable juice but there are already lots of competitors in the tomato juice market.

So, why not re-position tomato juice as “vegetable” juice?  Why not add other vegetables to your tomato juice so it’s not just tomato juice?  Why not create a new category for tomato juice and call it vegetable juice (V8)?

And that, of course, is exactly how V8 boosted their sales and set themselves apart as the vegetable juice of choice.  Okay, go ahead… slap the heel of your hand against your forehead and say, “I could have had a V8″.

Obviously the creative thinking was used to develop a position for their product that set it apart as it’s own category.

So how do you use this concept in your business?

• Start listening to discover the exact language your potential buyers use
• Start listening for what your best potential buyers are already looking for
• Start listening for what they already believe
• Tie that belief to your service
• Position your service in it’s own category

Now get to work your V8 moment is waiting…

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance